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United States Department of the Interior OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Clerk of the Marshall Islands N it ije la I wish to acknowledge on behalf of Secretary And rus,the receipt of the certified copy of Resolution No. 1 5 N.D.-1 o f theN it ije la, "A Resolution requesting the Government of the United States of America t o immediately conduct a radiological survey in the Marshall Islands. " I feel constrained to point out that paragraph4 of this as far as I am aware of, is not borne out by recent radiological data.This is the statement, "Whereas? recent radiological data,accumulated by the United States apparently radiological induced physical disorders among Marshallese residents,outside what was originally thought explosions at Bikini and Enewetak; particularly, on Li ki ep Recently, when the Marshall Islands Political Status Delegation was here in Washington, it raised this question with respect to Li ki ep Atoll but the question rested not on " recent radiological data accumulated by the United States", but rather on data collected by a Marshall Islands Li ki ep survey team and presented to the Department of Energy and to our Department by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the here on May 16, 1979. This Mg art ment and the Department of Energy assured Mr. DeBrum that priority attention would be given to the request that a medical survey be conducted of the people of Li ki ep Atoll. We will discuss the other aspects of the resolution,i.e * , the portions requesting a radiological survey of the Northern Marshalls, with the Department of Energy. I t appears t o me that.most,if not all, of this request may have been met by the recent radiological survey conducted on resolution makes avery broad and sweeping statement,that Government indicates an extraordinarily high incidence of the range of contamination caused by the nuclear
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13 atolls in the Northern Marshall s. The preliminary results of the Northern Marshall s Radiological Survey will be available by Mid-July. You may be assured that the N it ije la will receive copies of any report issued by the Department of Energy. I n any event,both this Department and the Department o f Energy, have pledged to work closely with the new government o f the Marshall s on the question of radiological matters and we will be in constant touch with local government RUTH G. VAN CLEVE Office of Territorial Affairs